Washington’s Division of Pure Sources state belief lands are among the many best-managed public forests within the nation. For many years, these working forests have offered funding for faculties, fireplace districts, hospitals, libraries and counties. In addition they ship clear water and air, wildlife habitat and sustainable, Washington-grown timber that’s then changed into housing, utility poles and different renewable merchandise.
Few states can level to a system that produces so many financial, social and environmental advantages from the identical acres. By regulation, these lands have to be managed to generate dependable income whereas assembly strict environmental requirements. Every harvested acre is replanted; streams, habitat and cultural sources are protected. In Western Washington, about half of all belief lands are already off-limits to reap, a lot of it older forests that may stay in reserve.
This stability is successful story. It’s why faculties and communities rely on timber revenues, and why Washington households depend on good-paying jobs within the woods and mills. That’s the reason it’s so disappointing to see Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove, unilaterally and with out a public course of, disrupt this stability by ordering tens of 1000’s of acres of those forests closed to timber administration.
On his first day in workplace, Upthegrove paused greater than two dozen timber gross sales. That “six-month” pause stretched to eight, pushing DNR’s timber program to its lowest output in 20 years. By the top of fiscal yr 2025, DNR offered simply 389 million board toes, practically 200 million under plan. That shortfall price faculties and native governments an estimated $60 million to $70 million and left DNR with a $25 million gap in administration charges used for silviculture, workers salaries and stewardship.
Now the commissioner has eliminated 77,000 acres of mature forests with an estimated timber worth of $2 billion from DNR’s working land base. If left to face, it will inevitably end in a lack of income to belief beneficiaries and decreased harvest volumes. For faculties, fireplace districts, hospitals and libraries, these misplaced revenues imply fewer lecturers, sources and companies. For rural economies, they imply fewer family-wage jobs.
Relatively than depend on the confirmed stability of working forests, Upthegrove suggests changing timber revenues with “ecosystem companies” comparable to carbon offsets. That may be a false resolution. Offsets permit polluters to proceed emitting whereas shifting the prices onto rural communities. Worse nonetheless, substituting offsets for Washington-grown wooden means importing lumber or utilizing extra carbon-intensive supplies, comparable to concrete and metal, which may enhance world emissions. And no offset program can generate anyplace close to the billions that sustainable timber harvests present for faculties and companies.
Earlier this yr, Upthegrove stated his pause was wanted to measure conservation objectives below DNR’s Habitat Conservation Plan. However the company’s personal modeling, obtained by way of public information, confirmed these objectives have been already met. The HCP requires 10%-15% of belief lands to be put aside as older, structurally complicated forests. In the present day, 15.1% already meet that normal, with some planning items as excessive as 19.8%. Washington is many years forward of schedule.
Shrinking the working forest base now will worsen Washington’s housing scarcity, weaken rural job markets, and destabilize the funding stream that belief beneficiaries depend on. Most regarding, Upthegrove introduced this motion unilaterally, bypassing the Board of Pure Sources and the Legislature, the establishments created to weigh main adjustments in belief land coverage with transparency and public enter.
Washington’s working forests already obtain what many say is not possible: They help faculties, maintain communities, shield habitat, and provide renewable wooden merchandise that retailer carbon and displace energy-intensive alternate options. They do all this below a number of the strictest forest practices on the earth. The system works. It ought to be strengthened, not undermined.
Undoing this stability jeopardizes revenues, jobs and public companies whereas providing no measurable environmental achieve. Beneficiaries, rural communities and the general public ought to demand higher. The Board of Pure Sources and the Legislature should restore stability and predictability for Washington’s faculties, companies and communities.
